It is a well-documented fact that the play was partly inspired by the suicide of one of Rattigan's former lovers. But it transcends gender specifics to become Rattigan's most complete exploration of his obsessive theme: the inequality of passion. It is also done with that masterly understatement that is Rattigan's signature. My favourite moment comes towards the end when Hester Collyer confronts her test-pilot lover who is about to abandon her for ever. "Had any food?" she simply asks him. "Yes," he replies, "I had a bite at the Belvedere." However much Rattigan may have attacked the English vice of emotional restraint, no dramatist made better use of its sub‑textual possibilities.

All this comes out strongly in Franks's production. Amanda Root, the latest in a long line of distinguished Hesters, brings out particularly well the self-hatred that drives Rattigan's heroine to attempted suicide. John Hopkins also has the right boyish charm as the lover who cannot satisfy her sexual and emotional needs, and there are pitch-perfect performances from Anthony Calf as her baffled husband and Susan Tracy as her bustling landlady. It's a perennially moving play that justifies Rattigan's reluctance, as a product of his time and class, to resist being labelled a gay dramatist: what really matters is his profound understanding of the wounded heart.